Isospin Character of Low-Lying Pygmy Dipole States via Inelastic Scattering of $^{17}$O

The γ decay from the pygmy states was measured in 208 Pb, 124 Sn and 90 Zr nuclei using the inelastic scattering of 17 O at 340 MeV. The emitted γ rays were detected with high resolution with the AGATA demonstrator array and the scattered ions were detected in two segmented ∆ E-E silicon telescopes. The multipolarity of the observed gamma transitions was determined with remarkable sensitivity thanks to angu lar distribution measurements. Cross sections and angular distributions of the γ rays and of the scattered particles were measured. The results are compared with ( γ , γ ’) and (p, p’) data. The data analysis with the distorted wave Born approximation approach gives a good description of the elastic scattering a nd of the inelastic excitation of the 2+ and 3− states. For the dipole transitions, a form factor obtained by folding a microscopically calculated transition dens ity was used for the first time. This has allowed us to extract the isoscalar component of the 1− excited states.